The lost art of face-to-face conversation

Decades ago or a few years back, whenever a group of friends meet up for chit-chat, they usually gather at popular hangouts like mamak stall or café. They will engage in a good old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation. Those kind of social interactions create intimacy, thus enable us to develop deeper connection to the person we’re talking to.

But today, face-to-face conversation amongst friends has become somewhat a lost art. It’s not an exaggeration, because (almost) all people nowadays are so dependable on social networking platforms by the likes of Facebook, Whataspp, or LINE to keep each other in touch. Getting to know a friend’s update is made easy through social networking platform. Take Facebook, for instance – when a friend updates something about himself or herself into the wall post, we will instantly know what’s going on via news feed. 

The possibility of connecting each other doesn’t end there. There’s Twitter, Instagram, Blogger – you name it. Everything goes digital, that you can simply receive your friend’s update at the comfort of your own home.

Even today’s people, especially the young generations, who hang out at the mamak stall or café, spend most of their time playing around with their mobile devices. They hardly engage in a true face-to-face conversation anymore, because they are so distracted by their mobile devices (e.g. busy checking out other people’s status or play online games).

No doubt mobile technology has upgraded significantly in term of communication. Like it or not, we have to admit that keeping in touch has become a breeze for everybody. Perhaps too convenient to the extent that somehow made (most of) us neglect our basic nature of face-to-face conversation. After all, keeping in touch digitally will never beat the good old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation. Don’t you think so?